International Connections continues tour of local institutions for international residents at Griffin Museum

International Connections continues tour of local institutions for international residents at Griffin Museum

International Connections continues tour of local institutions for international residents at Griffin Museum

On Thursday, June 23, following their weekly coffee and conversation meeting, International Connections committee member and WMCN Community Advisor, Caroline Hirschfeld, herself a noted photographer, led a group of international residents and Board members in a tour of the Griffin Museum of Photography on Shore Road.

Museum Associate Director Michael Bodall welcomed the group and gave an introduction to the history of the museum which was founded by Winchester photographer, Arthur Griffin, a pioneer in photography nationally renowned for capturing the spirit of traditional New England in his photographs. The museum is solely dedicated to the art of photography. Through its many exhibitions, programs and lectures the museum strives to “encourage a broader understanding and appreciation of the visual, emotional and social impact of photographic art.”

The exhibits the group saw reflecting the museum’s mission.

PhotoSynthesis XI ACollaboration of the Winchester High School and Boston Arts Academy
“By creating photographic portraits of themselves and their surroundings, students from the Boston Arts Academy and Winchester High School have been exploring their sense of self and place in a unique collaborative program at the Griffin Museum. In its eleventh year, the 5-month program connects approximately 20 students—from each school—with each other and with professional photographers. The goal is to increase students’ awareness of the art of photography, as well as how being from different programs and different schools affects their approach to the same project.”

Secret Art Histories Rebecca Clark
“I gather the elements used to create the multi-layered and surrealistic compositions by photographing original paintings hanging in museums,” says Clark. “I approach each painting like a photographer, isolating and selecting parts from the larger whole,” she says. “I transform, manipulate, and interweave photographs of multiple paintings to construct a historic painting that was never painted.”

Ghost SteppingMolly Lamb
Molly Lamb says that over the years she has inherited most of her family’s belongings and that packing and unpacking them has become an internal dialogue.
“The belongings [my family] left behind, elusive memories, and contradictory family stories form the precarious bedrock upon which my present reality rests,” states Lamb. “The photographs [of Ghost Stepping] are a meditation on the fragments and layers that shape my personal landscape, its erosion, and its transformation.”

Kai Lui, Chair of the International Connections Committee, plans tours of other Winchester institutions for international residents to become more fully engaged with the Town. An earlier tour had been to the Winchester Police Station where now-Police Chief, Peter MacDonnell, showed us less public spaces such as the command center, holding cells, and roll call room and answered many questions about police procedures.